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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30057540">stained glass boat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tacotwix/pseuds/tacotwix'>tacotwix</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Everyones hurt, Hurt Haruno Sakura, Hurt Hatake Kakashi, Hurt Uchiha Sasuke, Hurt Uzumaki Naruto, Mokuton User Haruno Sakura, Tags to be added, There's no in between, Uchiha Shisui Lives, it builds itself i have exactly zero choice in what happens here, kakashi thinks in terms of ally enemy Pack and irrelevant, no beta i die like minato on the night of the kyūbi attack, no idea where the plot is going, sakukarin won't be coming for a while but it'll pop up at some point, uchiha shisui - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:49:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,421</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30057540</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tacotwix/pseuds/tacotwix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>alternatively, the flow of water around rocks, and why nature should take better care of its children</p><p>In which one is water who flows too much to be held down, one is wild wind kept locked away without direction, one is a widow wrapped in their own web and one is a blurry mirror ready to shatter.</p><p>Kakashi finds Team Seven and Team Seven find him without them ever being assigned to each other.<br/>(kakashi rebuilds his pack from dust and dirt, and his pack rebuild him too)</p><p>--</p><p>He'd thought it was just luck, to see children with eyes like his. It's really not.<br/>Then he thinks it's just natural magnetism, but that can't be right either.<br/>Opposites attract, and he's far from the opposite of any of them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Haruno Sakura/Karin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>81</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. the river, the breeze, the web and the reflection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello! this is taco and this is my first ao3 fic! :D</p><p>ive had this idea for like. a year and i just left it tucked away in some document but now! ive pulled it up and its been living in my head rent-free for all of fifteen minutes. i do not write this story, this story writes itself. no, i do not know where the plot is going. hopefully i'll be able to get a plan at some point. sporadic updates :L</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They call her the Crimson Lily. A temptress trained to lure her enemies into her trap, and hold them there until they meet their deaths.<br/>
Sakura is not that.<br/>
She is a weapon.<br/>
They say she flows like water, twisting and churning and hiding a storm in her eyes.<br/>
They know she is water.<br/>
So when she flows around them, around their rules and their commands and their blows, she can't understand why they are surprised.<br/>
Yet even water has its limits, and Sakura is quickly reaching hers.<br/>
She lets the water take her far from here, carry her downstream until the pain is nothing but a distant memory.<br/>
She lets herself go lax, and pretends the sound of a gurgling brook is enough to replace everything she has lost.</p><p>--</p><p>He does not have a name; he is a quiet boy, with no defining traits other than his bright blonde hair, and the ugly scars marring his cheeks.<br/>
They call him Gale.<br/>
Every night, when he sleeps, a man who looks just like him tells him that his name is Naruto, and it means maelstrom.<br/>
The man's name is Minato. He tells him that he was the Yondaime Hokage and that he is Naruto's father. None of it means anything to Gale.<br/>
Minato also makes sure that Gale knows his name is not Naruto like the ramen ingredient; Gale doesn't even know what ramen is.<br/>
Eventually, Gale stops dreaming about the man.<br/>
There's a strange feeling of emptiness, the first night he wakes up without dreaming.<br/>
But Gale is a fighter, skills engrained in scars carved onto his bones.<br/>
The wind fills the space just fine.</p><p>--</p><p>His name will be Uchiha Sasuke, and he will be the Last Uchiha, and he is only eight years old. As his brother turns from him and towards his life as a missing-nin, he can't help but hate himself. He whose life is defined by the decisions others make for him.<br/>
But for all that Sasuke is a product of others' decisions, he is also very much in control.<br/>
They don't call him anything, but he knows what he is.<br/>
He is a spider, a widow quietly weaving her web in the shadows of everything that has been and will be.<br/>
So he waits, as a spider does.<br/>
He buries his feelings deep within him, so deep that even he cannot remember what he felt.<br/>
Then he tangles himself in his own web, and loses himself to hate.<br/>
Sasuke hates Itachi.<br/>
He does.</p><p>--</p><p>His name is Hatake Kakashi, and he is one of the best jōnin in Konoha. He knows this.<br/>
It might be the only thing he knows.<br/>
Sharingan no Kakashi is a mirror, blurred with time and with trauma. His only notable achievements are his skill, and so he focuses on that and that only. (He carefully does not think about Gai, about their challenges and rivalry and what might even be called a <em>friendship.</em>)</p><p>Chūnin at six, jōnin at twelve, ANBU Black Ops at thirteen.<br/>
He does not focus on Obito, or Rin, or Minato-sensei. He very carefully does not feel <strike>not</strike> his eye throb in its socket, just like how he does not feel her blood <strike>spilt by his hand</strike> every time he forms the seals for the Chidori, and how he does not feel a twinge of loss whenever he sees Naruto on the street.<br/>
Then Naruto is gone, and the Sandaime says <em>he's fine,</em> and Kakashi believes him and continues being a good little shinobi and doing his missions and failing his teams until he sees a familiar face marred by whisker marks on his way to the market.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. paper airplane</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>ew danzō ew root</p><p>no but in all seriousness theres. blood and gore and death this chapter :D</p><p> </p><p>edit: holy cow eleven kudos and over sixty hits :O</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gale does not remember a time before Root.<br/>
He does not remember the breeze, or the typhoons, or the gale that he is named for.<br/>
The gale that signals the coming of a storm, or at least Twenty-six told him.<br/>
When he was younger, he had a number. He didn't remember that either. Twenty-six told him that it was nine.</p><p>--</p><p>He hadn't noticed at first. It was common for older agents to be gone for days, weeks even, in service of Konohakagure. It wasn't until the three-month mark (he was pretty sure it was three months, anyway. Twenty-six had told him a month was thirty days, and Twenty-six wouldn't lie) that he began to get worried. Twenty-six had never been gone this long. Their missions never took more than two weeks. Two more months passed with nothing more than gruelling radio silence.<br/>
Then, Gale overheard Thirty-two and Eleven speaking in the hall. He needed only a few seconds to know he had heard enough.<br/>
Twenty-six was <em>missing.</em><br/>
Missing, missing missing missing miss- <em>The rate of return for shinobi that are missing for more than a week is less than five percent.</em> Twenty-six had been gone for longer. Much longer. </p><p>He lived the next few days in a sort of limbo, going about his routines and training all while feeling a strange sort of numb. He tried his hardest to hide it, but he was sure someone noticed. Nothing could go unnoticed in Root.
That was why he wasn't surprised when exactly eight days after he realised Twenty-six was <strike>dead</strike>missing, he was called to Lord Danzō's feet.</p><p>"Gale," Lord Danzō said after a moment, and then, "come here, boy."<br/>
He knelt obediently at his master's feet, head bowed. "I am yours to command, Lord Danzō." The words slipped easily off his lips, the result of an entire lifetime of conditioning and training.<br/>
"Gale, I am afraid something has happened. Something bad. I don't want to tell you to do this, but you have to kill Twenty-six."<br/>
Instantly Gale felt every muscle in his body pull taut. "M-my Lord?" He whispered quietly, only to flinch at the sound of Lord Danzō's cane slamming against the floor.<br/>
"Agent Twenty-six proved to be defective, and they have been leaking information to Kirigakure over the past four years. They must be killed."<br/>
Everything seems to stutter to a halt.
"I-I'm sorry?"
"I should not have to repeat myself."
Gale doesn't want to kill Twenty-six. But when put like that, does he really have a choice? He squashes down the emotions that threaten to rise into his throat, and blink away tears.<br/>
"Mission parameters?" He asks. He shouldn't be as proud as he is when his voice comes out steady.<br/>
"Target established position exactly sixty-two point three kilometers west of Konohagakure. You are to engage without backup."</p><p>Gale can only nod his understanding.<br/>
"For the good of Konoha." Danzō says.<br/>
"For the good of Konoha," he echoes, and hates how his voice trembles.<br/>
<em>Shinobi don't cry.</em></p><p>--</p><p>When he arrives at the site, Twenty-six is sitting there patiently, hands still halfway through the motion of sharpening his shuriken.<br/>
Gale approaches uncertainly, but his fingers hold his tantō firm despite how his resolve begins to crumble.<br/>
After a minute of silence, Gale takes a cautious step forward.<br/>
"Twenty-six," he says, and the other looks up.<br/>
"Oh! Gale. You're here." The smile is so blatantly fake that Gale feels like he's going to throw up.<br/>
"I-I have to kill you. You're a Kiri plant."<br/>
"Am I, now?"<br/>
"Y-You can't just-"<br/>
Then, Twenty-six's eyes harden. "Whatever Danzō told you is a fucking lie."<br/>
Gale rears back. He's never heard anyone swear like <em>that</em> before. That alone is enough to startle him into sitting back, eyes wide as he stares at his <strike>brother</strike>enemy.</p><p>Twenty-six smiles wanly. He looks tired. Too tired, Gale realises belatedly. What's wrong with him?<br/>
"Only one of us is making it out of here alive," Twenty-six starts. It's not a good start, but not many things in Root have the privilege of good starts. Gale can only nod along. "I know who I want it to be."<br/>
"Why?" The word falls past his lips before he can think about it, and Gale instantly claps a hand over his mouth.<br/>
Twenty-six smiles again, real this time. "Don't worry," he says, "you can ask. This is your graduation test." He spreads his arms wide. "This is Danzō's ultimate plan. To wipe you, and all other Root agents of emotion. Lucky for you, we won't have to fight at all. I'm your big brother. Let me take care of this, hmm?"<br/>
Gale looks down at his hands, angry to feel his eyes hot with tears. He feels something being pried from his hands and doesn't register what it is until-<br/>
Twenty-six is fingering his tantō.<br/>
He shifts, and the other looks up.<br/>
"Oh," he says, with something akin to relief in his tone, "you brought one. That's good. It'll be less painful, then."<br/>
"No, no, no, no, Twenty-six-"<br/>
"That's not my name," Twenty-six says. It's quiet. "If I'm going to die, I want you to know my name. The one I've chosen for myself. Okay, Gale?"<br/>
Gale isn't processing, isn't feeling, isn't thinking. It takes everything he has to interpret the sentence, to understand it needs a response.<br/>
"...Yes..." he says, finally, and Twenty-six's whole body drains of tension he hadn't noticed before.<br/>
"Okay. Good. Listen, Gale. My name is Ai, and I picked it for you."<br/>
Gale looks up at <strike>Twenty-six</strike>Ai, ready to cry again. He's not yet emotionless enough to forget what Ai is.<br/>
"Gale. Listen. I picked Ai because I love you. I love you with all my heart. I would do anything to protect you-"<br/>
"Even let me kill you? Even kill yourself?" Gale growls, a surge of anger coursing through him. "I won't let you do that-"<br/>
"Gale."</p><p>Gale freezes.<br/>
"I picked Ai because I love you, and even when I'm gone – I will be, soon - even when I'm gone, I'll be here with you. Right here," He distantly feels a knuckle tapping right where his heart is.<br/>
"Okay," he hears himself say. "I understand."<br/>
"That's good," Ai says, pained smile on their face, "I'm glad you understand. Danzō will be suspicious if you don't get back soon. We'll have to do it now."<br/>
Even though he knew it was coming, Gale still looks up at Ai in shock.<br/>
"Come on, it'll be easy. I'm glad I'm your first kill," Ai says, a bitter undertone to their words despite the bland smile plastered across their features, "killing is rather intimate, after all."<br/>
"I-I can't-" Gale manages, only to be shushed by his- by his brother.<br/>
"It's okay. Hey, hey, it's okay. I'll be right here with you. If we don't do this, he'll kill us both. Okay?"<br/>
Gale closes his eyes.<br/>
He feels someone wrap his fingers around a handle - <em>the</em> handle - and gently guide him forward, hands over his.</p><p> </p><p>He knows exactly when the blade first pierces flesh.<br/>
Ai lets out a pained grunt, and Gale's eyes open, and he regrets it instantly.<br/>
Because he can kill cats, and rabbits, and birds, but none of that can prepare him for seeing blood pour out of a breathing, warm human being- no, for seeing blood pour out of <em>Ai.</em><br/>
"Hey." The grip around his fist tightens. Gale looks up.<br/>
"Don't let this break you." Ai smiles, a trail of blood running free from the corner of their lip.<br/>
"Nii-san." He breathes, words a sigh lost to the wind.<br/>
The grip grows tighter. "Don't you fucking dare let this break you." Ai looks up at him, a dying man filled with enough desperation to live a few seconds longer.<br/>
"Okay. Okay, nii-san. I won't. I won't."<br/>
"Good. I love you."</p><p>By the time the "I love you too" leaves Gale's lips, Ai's eyes are already blank.</p><p>Gale holds his corpse and cries until Sixteen comes to fetch him. The other man pretends he doesn't see the tears.</p><p>--</p><p>"Gale."<br/>
He doesn't respond.<br/>
"Congratulations. You've graduated, and you're ready to serve Konohagakure."<br/>
He doesn't respond.<br/>
"You've done well."<br/>
Selfishly, he wishes that Ai had already been dead. At least then he wouldn't have had to kill him.<br/>
"You will receive your seal and your first mission."<br/>
He doesn't respond.<br/>
"Gale." Insistent.<br/>
"Fuck you." He says, finally, and feels a sort of triumph weave itself into his words.</p><p>Then, of course, his head snaps to the side, and his cheek throbs.<br/>
"Insolent boy. Know who you speak to."<br/>
He looks up and <em>growls</em>. He watches Danzō's face twist in disdain.<br/>
"Keep him still."</p><p>Sixteen and Eleven hold him down as Danzō paints the seal on his tongue.<br/>
It burns, he thinks. Probably.</p><p>When it's done, Danzō stands in front of him.<br/>
"Gale, there's something else I need to tell you. Now that you've become a full agent of Root."<br/>
He gazes blankly up at the man. He hates him, he thinks distantly. He does. In fact, he hates him so much that hate is the only thing he can feel right now. The desire to kill Danzō, and to make it hurt. Danzō must see something in his eyes, because he frowns for a second.<br/>
"Gale, I want you to understand that Twenty-six's death was necessary. Can you comprehend that, boy?"<br/>
Now that the illusion's been broken, he can suddenly see exactly how heavy-handed Danzō's manipulation actually is. "Mhm," he mumbles. The only thing he can think about is how Danzō still calls him Twenty-six. It makes him treasure Ai's real name just a bit more.<br/>
"That's good," Danzō sighs. He seems old. He <em>is</em> old, Gale thinks. But even with his age, he is dangerous. Gale should know better than to cross this man. He doesn't. "Listen, Gale. What I'm about to tell you is something that ultimately will have to be used for the good of Konoha."<br/>
Gale doesn't care. He doesn't care because Ai is <em>dead</em> and it's this bastard's faul-<em>"You are the Kyūbi."</em></p><p>What.</p><p>Danzō keeps talking even though he isn't listening anymore. The words he just heard bounce around his head over and over and <em>over</em> again until they finally start to make a bit of sense. Gale hates how much sense they make.<br/>
Then he remembers - <em>"to be used for the good of Konoha"</em> - and feels ready to throw up.<br/>
"Do you understand?"<br/>
He nods. He feels empty.<br/>
Danzō leaves.<br/>
Ai's death gets pushed to the back of his mind. Because he's the fucking- he's the-<br/>
He hates himself for it.</p><p>--</p><p>It could be seconds, minutes or hours later when a file hits him in the face.<br/>
"Uchiha Shisui," Sixteen says.<br/>
Gale reaches up and flips the folder open. He's the Kyūbi he's the Kyūbi <em>he's the Kyū-</em>the face that stares back at him is familiar. This man. He's been around Root HQ before.
"Betrayed Konohakagure and Danzō."
There's nothing else that needs to be said. There's only one way to deal with traitors, after all.
"Eyes must be intact. Murder not suspected."
Now isn't that suspicious. 
Gale looks up at Sixteen. 
"Okay," he says, "Understood."
He gets up, and he leaves.</p><p>--</p><p>Shisui is sharpening his weapons by the river when Gale appears before him.<br/>
The older boy swears, leaps back into a <em>shunshin</em> and reappears twenty metres away.<br/>
"Who the fuck-" Shisui takes a better look at Gale and growls, pulling his tantō from its sheath. Gale has his mask on, and is wearing a coat typical for Root agents in the field.<br/>
He crouches into a fighting stance. They don't hesitate to fight after that.</p><p>Shisui comes towards him with the speed he is renowned for: he crosses the twenty metres between one second and the next, and then Gale finds himself looking into the swirling tomoe of the Sharingan. He screws his eyes shut and brings his own blade up in a wide arc, forcing him back- one step, two steps, three- and there's barely a second to breathe before Shisui is plunging down on him from above. Gale braces his blade on his palms and holds even as the other boy forces his entire weight down on him. The stalemate lasts just a moment before they break apart. Gale pushes himself into a <em>shunshin</em>, and then another, before he's standing a relatively comfortable distance from the other.</p><p>"Wait," he breathes, "wait. I'm not here to kill you-" He hates how the mask muffles his voice, makes it sound older when he's trying his best to be vulnerable.<br/>
"Oh yeah?" Shisui flickers forward, and is suddenly taking long strides, crossing the distance, closing the gap fast - and Gale can't, <em>won't</em>, back away. The older boy is only two steps away when he takes his mask off, shattering it into the weeds beneath their feet.<br/>
Shisui hesitates. It's barely a stumble - his heel catches on the grass but he still brings his foot down as if nothing happened.<br/>
"You're a kid," he says, and Gale just nods numbly. "You think that's going to stop me? I'm sure you know what Danzō's done to me."<br/>
"I do," Gale says, and suddenly he's unbelievably <em>angry</em>, because Danzō has taken away everything he has. "I do, because he did it to me too. I killed my brother today," he stops, and thinks for a moment. "Or maybe yesterday. I'm not sure."<br/>
Shisui freezes, and then brings himself back into a fighting stance.<br/>
"So you're a full agent."<br/>
"I am. I don't think Danzō would have sent me to kill you otherwise."<br/>
Then the tension is over. Shisui relaxes, blade in his hand but held significantly looser than before.<br/>
"You don't call him Lord."<br/>
Gale doesn't say anything. He doesn't need to.<br/>
"Come on, then. We're going to see Hokage-sama."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. muddy ditch</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Haruno Sakura is nothing more than a ghost story - a child who went missing four years ago and just never came back. </p><p>That is, until she stumbles into Konoha the day before the next generation of genin graduate. Not that it matters, <em>when</em> she comes back. What matters is that the village has failed yet another child.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakura was kidnapped on the day she was meant to start at the Academy, and taken to a village far from Konoha.<br/>
They called themselves the Armistice - which was ironic, really, considering their rather violent nature. She was meant to be their weapon. <em>The</em> weapon.<br/>
Sakura hadn't even touched a kunai before.<br/>
That was okay.<br/>
She was adaptable.</p><p>They taught her the Rule first.<br/>
<em>The mission came before anything else.</em><br/>
The mission came before her teammates, her dignity, her health.<br/>
The mission was First.</p><p>She was assigned her first mission when she was nine and three months old. She had spent little more than a year in captivity, and in that time she had changed.<br/>
They told her to assassinate a prominent nukenin.<br/>
She did.<br/>
All her teammates died in the process.<br/>
One was younger than her. She couldn't recall if they ever exchanged names.<br/>
She called him Haruko, for the spring he never got to see.</p><p>She made sure all her teammates returned alive after that.<br/>
And that she knew their names.</p><p>Then the Armistice told her to kill a kid just like Haruko.<br/>
She killed her commanding officer instead.<br/>
That earned her the name of the 'Crimson Lily'.<br/>
They still killed the child. Sakura learned later that she was Haruko's younger sister.</p><p>--</p><p>The thing about Sakura is that she was angry. She was always angry. It was simply in her nature.<br/>
So when she started to feel the first sparks of hate burn in her stomach, she fanned the flames. She let her resentment for the Armistice grow, let it scorch her insides until she was nothing but rage.<br/>
They didn't know.<br/>
Sakura had always been a good actor.</p><p>--</p><p>"Sakura." She lifted her head to gaze quietly at her handler. Inoue Daichi was a stout man with chestnut brown hair and a crossed-out hitai-ate from Kiri. His arms were littered with scars that looked like they came from shuriken and he had a scar running from his hairline to his left cheekbone, cutting straight through his eye. He didn't wear an eyepatch - he probably thought it made him look intimidating. Sakura thought it was pathetic that anyone would need cheap tactics like that to win a fight.<br/>
"There's been a bounty put out for Rokushō Aoi. Konoha nukenin, jōnin level. He's currently situated in an outpost close to Ame, which is two days' run from here. You'll have to cut straight through Hi no Kuni to get there."<br/>
Sakura looked at the picture he handed her, of the green-haired shinobi whose eyes were distinctly evil, and smiled. She would not mourn this man.</p><p>The run to Ame was the hardest part of the whole mission, and even then it wasn't difficult. It took her forty hours and twenty-seven minutes to arrive there, including one thirty-one minute break. Remarkably quick, especially for a girl her age. She revelled in the feeling of branches beneath her feet, of solid wood caressed by water.</p><p>It was almost laughably easy to kill him. He was exactly where Inoue said he would be, sitting by the sputtering remains of a fire. The ceaseless rain in Ame did nothing to help him reignite it. </p><p>It was simple enough to slip her kunai into his back and feel the blade slide wetly through flesh, to see red slip out of the wound to coat the soft iron. Rokushō choked on the blood bubbling up his throat and fell to his knees, dead. He ended up slumped on top of the campfire. It was all terribly anticlimactic. He wasn’t much of a jōnin skill-wise, then. Maybe he was an intel ninja before leaving Konoha.</p><p> Sakura idly noted how the last licks of flame were leaving blisters on his cooling chest and turned to face his companions. </p><p>--</p><p>Sakura went flying through the air, flipping to catch herself on her feet. As she landed, her hands were already moving to form seals - dog, snake, monkey, ox, tiger. She flared her chakra so that it encompassed both her adversaries and watched intently for any sign of resistance as they both stilled.<br/>
"<em>Magen: Jubaku Satsu.</em>" She whispered, feeling the genjutsu settle around her enemies.<br/>
These two had been more difficult to deal with. Both were at least high-chūnin level in terms of taijutsu, and one of them was proficient in ninjutsu as well. The woman had used large amounts of chakra to compensate for subpar chakra control - effective, but ultimately inefficient. Sakura had only had to dodge a water dragon and a few fireballs before the other had seemed to run out of steam.<br/>
The other was an explosives specialist, though he also handled senbon particularly well. He made traps quickly and efficiently, turning the campsite into a minefield. He'd nearly nailed one of her pressure points with the long needles he wielded as well. From what Sakura could feel, his reserves were below average and he'd manage a couple of C-rank jutsu at best.<br/>
Neither seemed to have any skill with genjutsu, however, as was proven with how easily they were caught under it. Sakura took pleasure in emerging from the illusory trees they were bound to and slitting their necks.</p><p>--</p><p>When she got back to the village, the Kage was waiting for her.<br/>
He was a distinctly serpentine man, with bright amber eyes that scrutinised her every step.<br/>
His first words to her were: "I am your Kage. The Otokage. You may call me Orochimaru. You have proved your worth against Rokushō Aoi and have had the privilege to be selected as one of twenty subjects to be imbued with a higher power,"<br/>
Then, almost as an afterthought: "Congratulations on your eleventh birthday."<br/>
Sakura didn't like Orochimaru. But he was her <em>Kage</em>, so she followed him down a winding hallway into a room filled with older children who looked at her with disdain.<br/>
She watched him lay out twenty syringes, watched him put the needles into living, breathing people one by one.</p><p>One by one, they stopped breathing.</p><p>She let him put a needle in her arm anyway. It felt cold until it didn't. It felt cold until it <em>burned</em>-</p><p>She didn't remember much after that.</p><p>--</p><p>When she woke, she felt different.<br/>
Steadier.<br/>
No longer water, but earth.<br/>
Orochimaru took her to a field and guided her fingers through seals.<br/>
<em>Tiger. Dog. Snake.</em><br/>
Sakura realised exactly what he'd done to her the moment a wooden clone detached itself from her body.<br/>
Her Kage looked excited. He looked at her like she was some great scientific breakthrough. She supposed she was.<br/>
Orochimaru ran her through creating multiple <em>bunshin</em>, looking delighted even when she failed.<br/>
It wasn't a matter of inability. Sakura simply couldn't focus.<br/>
Not when she could feel every rush of air leaving her lungs, not when she could feel the earth through her sandals, not when her newly heightened senses alerted her to every particle of dust.<br/>
Not when she no longer felt human.</p><p>She felt like she was drowning.</p><p>Sakura hated Mokuton.</p><p>--</p><p>Her nightmares turned to dreams, and then stopped entirely.<br/>
Sakura didn't dream about Haruko anymore.<br/>
She couldn't tell whether that was a relief or not.<br/>
Sakura supposed it was because her whole life was a nightmare now.</p><p>--</p><p>It started on a normal day.<br/>
She'd been training - normal training, with shuriken and kunai - when something wrapped itself around her torso.<br/>
She had frozen, and her kunai had bounced uselessly off the edge of the target.<br/>
Then, multiple somethings had wound their way around her limbs, around her ankles and her elbows and her shoulders- her knees gave way, and she fell to the ground.<br/>
The things - no, the <em>branches</em> - just squeezed tighter until she was nothing but a seizing mess on the ground.<br/>
And then she couldn't breathe.<br/>
She couldn't breathe because there was <em>wood</em> around her neck, unyielding wood that was crushing her windpipe-</p><p>She registered the distant blur that had to be Orochimaru, crouching next to her.<br/>
That wasn't right. How could he be far if he was close-?<br/>
He was probably saying something. Why couldn't she hear him?</p><p>Then the branch around her neck contorted, and Sakura choked.<br/>
She could hear again - muffled sounds that sounded distinctly panicked, heard like she was underwater.<br/>
Blob-Orochimaru raised his hand and brought it down on her head. Sakura welcomed the cool relief of unconsciousness.</p><p>--</p><p>"...psychological effects..."<br/>
"...presumably branches, restraining..."<br/>
"...can be reduced..."</p><p>There was no slow awakening for shinobi.<br/>
They came to an awareness between one second and the next.<br/>
Sakura was a shinobi.<br/>
She blinked.<br/>
The branches were gone.<br/>
Orochimaru sat by her side, eyes half-lidded and looking incredibly exhausted.<br/>
She twitched her fingers experimentally, feeling the tightness in her joints, and he looked up.<br/>
An unreadable expression crossed his face.<br/>
"You're awake."<br/>
"I'm sorry, Otokag-"<br/>
"No," he said, cutting her off. Sakura froze. He'd never done that before. This was new territory. This was being stranded on a boat amid tumultuous waves.<br/>
"No, you don't have to be sorry. Not about this."<br/>
"I-I'm sorry-what happened?"<br/>
"The Mokuton has a side effect. It's purely psychological and is a phenomenon known as the Branches of Binding. Every once in a while, what happened to you is going to happen again. It's a manifestation of the strength of the wood. The more you use Mokuton, the more frequent it'll be."<br/>
Sakura realised what this was.<br/>
This was <i>concern</i>.<br/>
Orochimaru was concerned about her, and how the Mokuton was affecting her. Orochimaru, her Kage, was concerned for her wellbeing.<br/>
Suddenly, Sakura felt a tear roll down her cheek.<br/>
"I-I'm sorry." She said after a moment and hated how her voice trembled. She was too weak. A good shinobi had to be at peak physical performance at all times. They couldn't be affected by physical injuries, much less <i>psychological</i> ones-<br/>
"Hashirama suffered from it too. T-the Shodai Hokage. I mean. So you're not weak. If that's what you were thinking." Orochimaru cleared his throat. Sakura could tell that he was flustered without even looking at him.<br/>
She couldn't help it. She cried harder.<br/>
"Oh, shut up."<br/>
The change was so abrupt that Sakura's shock stopped the tears.<br/>
Orochimaru stood, pushing his chair back and making his way to the door.<br/>
"I've used up my emotional quota for the entire year, thanks to you. Be grateful."<br/>
Sakura couldn't help but smile.<br/>
"Thank you," she whispered, staring at her hands fisted in the blankets.<br/>
Even if she wasn't of use now, she had faith that her Kage would make her useful.<br/>
Orochimaru-sama didn't respond, but she knew that he heard her.</p><p>--</p><p>"Sakura, I'd like to introduce you to someone. This is Karin. Karin, Sakura. I think you'll both benefit from someone your age."<br/>
Sakura looked at the other girl and instantly noticed the blinding red beacon that was her hair.<br/>
"I like your hair." She blurted, and immediately turned red.<br/>
Karin blushed. "I-I like your hair too. It's really pink."<br/>
"So what can you do?" Sakura asked - she'd been taught that every person Orochimaru kept was useful, so how was this girl used?<br/>
"I'm an Uzumaki."<br/>
Sakura tilted her head. "What does that mean?"<br/>
"Oh-sorry-I-I can make chakra chains, and I'm alright with seals, and I've got a lot of chakra. I'm also a chakra sensor - I can see and sense chakra for miles. Orochimaru-sama saved me from my village. A-and. Um."<br/>
Karin's hands began to move, rubbing up and down the length of her forearms.<br/>
This wasn't something she wanted to talk about.<br/>
"No, it's alright. You don't have to tell me," Sakura said. "Otokage-sama took me from Konoha and gave me the Mokuton."<br/>
"Mokuton?" Karin asked after a moment, eyes wide. "Is this what it feels like?"<br/>
"I would suppose so. What does it feel like?"<br/>
Karin seemed to think for a moment, before smiling. "It's like sunlight through the leaves. Smells like petrichor."<br/>
"That sounds nice."<br/>
"It is."<br/>
"Hm."<br/>
"Yeah."<br/>
She looked at Karin, and Karin looked at her. At once, they both started laughing.<br/>
It took a while for the two eleven-year-olds to calm down. Sakura barely noticed that their Kage had left the room.<br/>
"Y-you're a nice friend." Sakura declared, a genuine grin spreading across her expression.<br/>
Karin froze slightly before she beamed. "You're a nice friend too."</p><p>--</p><p>They grew closer in the months after that.<br/>
More often than not, Sakura would find herself sneaking off to the library to spend time with her newfound friend, just existing in each others' space. </p><p>"You know," Karin had said once, "I have one more ability I didn't tell you about back then."<br/>
Sakura had nodded. "Mm. You seemed uncomfortable, and I didn't want to push."<br/>
"When people bite me, they get healed."<br/>
Sakura pulled back and stared at Karin.<br/>
"Is that what they used you for, back in the village?" She asked, trying to keep the anger from her voice but not completely succeeding.<br/>
"They killed my mother with it." Karin sounded bitter. Sakura hadn't ever heard her sound bitter before.<br/>
"Thank you for telling me. I'll need your permission to go kill them all right about now."<br/>
Karin giggled. "N-no! Orochimaru-sama destroyed the village."<br/>
Sakura sighed. "All right then. But if you ever need help, you'll call on the Crimson Lily?"<br/>
"I will! But you better tell me if you're in trouble, kay?"</p><p>Sakura couldn't have asked for anything more.</p><p>--</p><p>Except then she read a book and found out who her Otokage was.<br/>
Specifically the Bingo Book.<br/>
Orochimaru's face stared back at her from the seventh page, his signature smirk present on his expression.<br/>
"Orochimaru," she read, and it felt like a betrayal. Even the steadiness the Mokuton provided her could not stop everything she knew from falling apart like wet paper.<br/>
"SSS-Rank nuke-nin. Known for-" her voice broke, and she tried again.<br/>
"Known for unethical experiments on child-"<br/>
"So you found out."<br/>
She turned and was filled with dread. Bile bubbled into her throat, threatening to choke her, to drown her-<br/>
"I've done bad things in the past, Sakura. Please-"<br/>
She didn't listen, only flinched as Orochimaru took a step closer to her.<br/>
Suddenly everything slotted into place, like a jigsaw puzzle missing the final piece.<br/>
<em>Child experimentation-</em> the needle slid through flesh and muscle, and it burned-<br/>
Suddenly she had gained perspective.<br/>
The rage that filled her burned the same way the Shodai Hokage's cells did.<br/>
She slapped Orochimaru's hand aside and jumped out the window behind her, forming the ram seal as she did.<br/>
She hit the ground feet first, rolling into a cushion of branches. Once she'd regained balance, she instantly began to run.<br/>
Konoha wasn't far from here. </p><p>Sakura's legs kept moving, carrying her from tree to tree even as her mind drifted. She realised that there must be people, Oto nin, if not Orochimaru himself following her.<br/>
But he was a Konoha nukenin. He wouldn't follow her straight to the gates of Konoha, and neither would his people.<br/>
The Village Hidden in the Leaves was only about fourteen hours' run from here. If she stopped, she'd be caught. So Sakura kept running, left foot after right, flowing around the kunai that weren't aimed to kill.<br/>
Sakura had always been water, even hidden under the wood. She couldn't believe she'd let Orochimaru contain her like that.<br/>
A kunai caught her in the side, and she pressed her right hand to the wound.<br/>
Then she remembered Karin. Karin, who she'd left behind in her panic to get away from the madman that she'd been pleased to call her Kage. From the man who'd manipulated her to a point where she couldn't even recognise child experimentation as it was happening to her.<br/>
Fuck.<br/>
She couldn't turn back now. She wouldn't turn back now.<br/>
"Sorry, Karin," Sakura murmured. "stay safe."<br/>
She carefully brought her free hand up into a seal and formed branches into barriers behind her.</p><p>She kept running until she saw the grand gates of the biggest Hidden Village, even though her pursuers had stopped a while back.<br/>
She kept running <i>through</i> the gates, past the gate guards. Then she stopped, and fell to the floor like a mannequin with its strings cut. Because this was Konoha, where Orochimaru could not go. She was safe.<br/>
"Hey! Who are you?"<br/>
A nondescript young man whose brown hair covered his right eye strode over to her, looking her up and down.<br/>
Coming down from her adrenaline high, Sakura looked at him and just laughed.<br/>
"M-my name is Haruno Sakura," she said after a second of elation, "and I've been missing for four years."</p><p>She was safe.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>yes i fucked up i forgot what i wrote in the prologue lmao that's why the parts about water seem forced. whoops.</p><p>anyway, just for reference: after she gets to konoha the sandaime makes her give up her last name so that he doesn't have to admit that orochimaru kidnapped a kid under everyone's noses and then dumps her on the streets. really not a great choice</p><p>also yes i don't really relate to sakura so if this chapter seems extra shitty that's why TvT</p><p>--</p><p>The name Haruko comes from some website for Japanese names...because unfortunately I do not understand Japanese lmao</p><p>It apparently means "春子" which is basically 'spring child' in English. If that's not right I apologise :'D</p><p>The name of Sakura's handler. doesn't really matter so i kind of just slapped two names together and went "this is fine"<br/>also yes i did steal a name from the naruto wiki's list of nukenin because i was too lazy to come up with another</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. knotted silk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>sasuke learns how to hate and forgets how to love</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sasuke is seven. His birthday is in thirteen days (two weeks, Itachi tells him, but that makes it seem a whole <i>day</i> longer than it actually is, and that's something only adults do). He will turn eight in humid July weather, just like he turned seven last year and six the year before that.<br/>
Sasuke likes birthdays because Itachi always looks at him on his birthday. It's the one day where his brother won't (<i>can't</i>, his brain supplies) ignore him, won't flick him on the head and make broken promises.<br/>
July 23rd is the only day on which his aniki actually looks at him.</p><p>It's six days to his birthday when the massacre happens.<br/>
It's six days to his birthday when Itachi tells him that he is weak, tells him to kill his closest friend for the Mangekyō.<br/>
It's six days to his birthday when Itachi becomes a nukenin.</p><p>It's a week to his birthday when he becomes the Last Uchiha.</p><p>--</p><p>Later, he finds out that it takes him five days (a week) to wake from Itachi's genjutsu.<br/>
He'll need to fix that. He can't be incapacitated for a whole <i>week</i> after one mistake.<br/>
Not that he plans to make mistakes.</p><p>Itachi goes from aniki to the man who shattered his life overnight.<br/>
Sasuke goes back to the Academy like nothing happened.</p><p>It's almost laughable.</p><p>--</p><p>His birthday is on a Tuesday.<br/>
He goes home and has his first panic attack.</p><p>--</p><p>It happens for no reason at all.<br/>
The kettle whistles like shuriken flying through the air, and suddenly- suddenly, everything is in focus.<br/>
Suddenly Itachi is <i>there</i>, bloody tantō in hand- he can't be there, some logical part of his mind whispers- and suddenly Sasuke is pressed up against the wall breathing too hard and too fast.<br/>
He grabs for his kunai but his hand fumbles the weapons pouch and it goes clattering to the floor which only makes him panic more makes him breathe even harder and even faster because now Itachi's going to kill him his brother changed his mind he won't let him live but Sasuke doesn't want to <i>die</i>-</p><p>The kettle is still whistling.</p><p>The kettle is still whistling, and he can still hear the crickets chirping outside, and he can feel the wood beneath his toes.</p><p>If he strains his ears enough he can make out the sounds of the village, of some sort of festival.<br/>
He can smell the miso soup sitting on the table.</p><p>He can't smell blood, or ash, or smoke bubbling in the back of his throat.<br/>
He can't smell what he smelled that night, not like how it was then.</p><p>So he braces himself where the walls meet, and breathes.</p><p>--</p><p>After what seems like an age, a warm body presses up against his side.<br/>
<i>"Mrow..."</i> it demands, and Sasuke lifts his head from between his knees to see a black cat with yellow eyes.<br/>
Amber eyes, he realises after a moment of staring - he <i>knows</i> this cat.<br/>
This is- was Uchiha Izumi's cat.<br/>
"Kuro?" He whispers after a moment, because for all her skill and heart Izumi was always a simple person, and the cat looks up and meows.</p><p>It is easier, with Kuro there.<br/>
The feline is a presence next to him, offering comfort and a noticeable lack of judgement.<br/>
Sasuke isn't alone anymore.<br/>
That's. Probably a good thing.</p><p>--</p><p>It's nearly an hour later when Sasuke realises today's his birthday.<br/>
Today's his birthday, and the whole village is holding a festival for him and he's not there because he forgot, and he's useless and he should be <i>grateful</i> and here he is cowering, too selfish to even show his face- a-and-<br/>
Kuro places a paw on his arm and just looks at him.<br/>
Sasuke realises his breathing has gone shallow and makes an effort to relax, tries hard except its not working-</p><p> </p><p>He is eight when he has his second panic attack.</p><p>--</p><p>The next morning, he picks himself up from the floor, spilling Kuro off his lap.<br/>
The cat acquiesces with a soft meow and flips herself midair to land gamely on her paws.</p><p>It takes him fifteen minutes (sixteen and twenty-three seconds, but who's counting) to put on a new, not-sweaty shirt and arm warmers and get to the Academy.<br/>
He arrives in the middle of a taijutsu lesson and slips into the end of the line. </p><p>Kiba looks at him for a second before turning away in obvious dismissal.</p><p>Iruka-sensei pulls him aside and asks him why he's late - Sasuke murmurs out something about oversleeping, and his sensei doesn't push.</p><p>He takes the win against Chōji, and everything is back to normal.</p><p>--</p><p>It's five minutes later that he realises Shikamaru is still staring at him, eyes boring into the back of his head.</p><p>Sasuke turns and glares at him, but the lazy genius has already averted his gaze.</p><p>--</p><p>He makes sure to train even harder after that because now he's got a <i>weakness</i>, one that will be exploited as soon as he even catches a glimpse of Itachi.</p><p>--</p><p>Sasuke is a boy in a compound full of ghosts, ghosts of his ancestors who scream at him to exact vengeance on their murderer.</p><p>But he can't-<br/>
Sasuke has always been too much like his brother.</p><p>He has always been a pacifist, always hated violence, and for all that Itachi killed his family, he is also the last surviving family Sasuke has left.</p><p>Sasuke hates his brother. He does. But his heart has always been too big, and there is plenty of space left for love as well.</p><p>--</p><p>He's curled up with Kuro one night when he makes his decision.</p><p>He can't love his brother; he can't be selfish, not when Itachi massacred close to two thousand Uchiha.</p><p>He's curled up with Kuro one night when he decides to hate Itachi with all he has.</p><p>That night, he begins to plan.</p><p>--</p><p>The Academy becomes little more than a game.<br/>
He analyses his classmates, sees Chōji's insecurity and Shikamaru's steel, decides that they're too weak to be anything more than liabilities against his brother.<br/>
Sparring goes from trading blows to swift takedowns, and his grades soar higher than ever.<br/>
He's going to have to be better than Academy perfect to beat Itachi.</p><p>They let him graduate early.<br/>
He's eight when he does ram-snake-tiger in the blink of the eye, eight when he runs through dog-boar-ram quick as a flash.<br/>
He walks out of the Academy with a metal plate framed on a blue bandana tied securely to his forehead.</p><p>--</p><p>Sasuke falls into a rhythm of wake-eat-train-train-eat-sleep over the next three years - he hits nine, ten, then eleven.</p><p>It's four months (three months and twenty-six days) after his eleventh birthday that the Hokage calls him to his office, and he meets a strange man with silver-lichen hair.</p><p>He learns that this man is Hatake Kakashi, child prodigy and last survivor of his clan - just like him.<br/>
He learns that Hatake Kakashi is to be his mentor until he hits chūnin.</p><p>The Hokage doesn't tell him, and neither does his new teacher, but he also learns that Hatake Kakashi is hurting, and has been for a long time.</p><p>He learns that Hatake Kakashi is broken.</p><p>--</p><p>Kakashi makes him better. Teaches him to walk on trees, on water. Teaches him ox-rabbit-monkey-dragon-rat-bird-ox-snake-dog-tiger-monkey, teaches him to call lightning to his will.</p><p>They're three months into training and still, his sensei keeps him at a distance; three months into training and Sasuke still doesn't know how old his sensei is, or when his birthday is, or what his favourite colour is.<br/>
Sasuke decides that if his sensei were mentally stable, he would be able to square off against Itachi – so he promises himself to help Kakashi as Kakashi has helped him, and insists it's not because he's formed a relationship with the tall, lean man.</p><p>He hasn't.</p><p>--</p><p>Then he meets <i>Sakura</i> and <i>Gale</i>, and everything goes wrong from there.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>sorry this is so late,,, ive just moved timezones so theres that ;-;!</p><p>lost my motivation to write literally anything but hopefully! hopefully kakashi's chapter will come out easier than this just because hes my favourite lmao</p><p>aLSO JUST REALISED THAT THE DESCRIPTION SAYS THEYRE NOT ASSIGNED TO EACH OTHER WHICH! THEY ARE whoops but thats only going to be for kakashi and sasuke so :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. frosted glass</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>kakashi! poor kakashi :(</p><p>it's okay he gets help just not this chapter lmao</p><p>edit: im dumb. i forgot i wanted shisui to live. whoops.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kakashi has always been a shinobi.<br/>
The Hatake are a shinobi clan, and their blood runs through his veins. He has always been an excellent Hatake.</p><p>--</p><p>When his father dies, he is four. But he is a good Hatake and above all, a good shinobi, so he does not hear the way that Sakumo's name is slandered even at the funeral. What he does hear is the Sandaime telling him that his father was a "great man", and an "even better shinobi".<br/>
Kakashi does not hate the Sandaime, for what he let people do to his father. He doesn't.</p><p>--</p><p>He is twelve when Kannabi Bridge happens. He is twelve when he gets given the crimson eye. He is twelve when Obito dies. He hears that he should honour Obito's gift, that he should use it for the good of Konoha. He does not hear how the Uchiha speak of removing the eye, or how his teammate was a failure.<br/>
He does not hate Minato, for looking at him like he's fragile. He doesn't.</p><p>--</p><p>Then the war ends, and so does the suffering.<br/>
Really, all Kakashi seems to do is lie to himself.</p><p>--</p><p>Rin dies just a few months later. This time he hears it - <em>Friend-Killer Kakashi</em>. Murderer. Kakashi doesn't mind the moniker. He can't fault people for telling the truth. Not when he still feels her blood (red hot, crimson, spraying onto his face in a way that can still be felt even when it's been washed clean) not when he feels her heart beating around his arm, collapsing, <em>stopping</em>.<br/>
Not when his hands are dirtied with her blood.<br/>
He does not hate himself.<br/>
He really does.</p><p>--</p><p>Then the Kyūbi attacks, invades the village, destroys a whole civilian district, and he's tasked with protecting Kushina because she's pregnant with Naruto, sweet innocent Naruto-</p><p>Kakashi fails, and Naruto becomes an orphan.</p><p>--</p><p>And then ANBU happens, and he's not Friend-Killer Kakashi anymore. He becomes Hound, becomes <i>Inu</i>, becomes a mask.<br/>
He adopts a new nindo, finds himself putting his comrades first instead of the mission, and becomes Copy-Nin and Sharingan no Kakashi and Friend-Saver.<br/>
Strangely enough, he finds his first human Pack in the depths of the darkest parts of Konoha.</p><p>--</p><p>Genma is first.<br/>
He was one of the Hokage's guard and is the only person who can ever understand the bitterness of defeat like Inu does, who understands what it feels like to hide everything behind a mask.<br/>
Inu let Kushina die, and Kumo let Minato.<br/>
They failed.</p><p>It's almost natural for Kakashi to slide him straight from comrade to ally to Pack.</p><p>--</p><p>After that is Tenzō.<br/>
Neko is wood and Inu is lightning, and they make it work- make it work because even though lightning scorches wood, Inu refuses to hurt any more friends.<br/>
Inu gains a kouhai, and at that point, it's not a choice.<br/>
The day he meets Tenzō, he learns that his kouhai burns, and that wood burns into charcoal.</p><p>Tenzō is steady, reliable, fuel when you have none.<br/>
Team Ro gains charcoal, and Kakashi gains a packmate.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p>Karasu is next.<br/>
He's happy, undeniably so, and <i>young</i>.<br/>
He joins Team Ro, passes their entrance exam easily, and Inu knows he's an Uchiha from the start (there's nothing else he can be, with twin eyes that glow as red as his own).<br/>
Inu is prepared for animosity, for hate and glares and possible attempts at genjutsu.<br/>
Nobody can be prepared for the sheer chaos that is Uchiha Shisui.</p><p>The younger man shoves his way into Kakashi's Pack with ease.</p><p>--</p><p>Itachi doesn't become Pack.</p><p>Maybe he could have been, Kakashi thinks, if they'd had longer.<br/>
But as it is, Itachi was comrade-ally-friend, and nothing more.</p><p>--</p><p>When the Massacre happens, he has already been too desensitised to betrayal. He raises his blade to his chest, <em>a reminder</em>, always always <em>always</em> a reminder never a threat- and thanks Itachi for leaving Sasuke and Karasu alive. (Or maybe Karasu beat Itachi, he thinks, and let him get away-)<br/>
He raises his blade to his chest as a reminder and ignores the way a knife twists in his gut as his chakra adapts to the loss of Itachi (<i>comrade-ally-friend-gone-gone-gone</i>)'s presence.<br/>
Shisui becomes Karasu (and only Karasu, he can't be an Uchiha anymore), and Sasuke becomes the Last.</p><p>--</p><p>Inu runs a string of suicide missions, and Karasu stays by his side as a sort of comfort.<br/>
Then he realises Naruto's gone and does some more for good measure.</p><p>--</p><p>The Sandaime pulls him out of ANBU, pulls him out of everything he knows and tells him to become a jōnin-sensei. To look after children, genin, when he can barely look after himself.</p><p>Kakashi can't decline, but he doesn't accept either.<br/>
He bows his head and rejects each genin team for the next four years.</p><p>--</p><p>Then he sees a shock of blonde, matted around a hitai-ate, and can't decide whether to laugh or cry.<br/>
This- <i>he</i> is Minato and Kushina's legacy-<br/>
"Naruto," he breathes, because this- it's been years, too long-</p><p>The eyes that look up at him aren't innocent, or even angry and hurt like he thought they might be.<br/>
They're fierce, the way that only truly dangerous people are, and cold. A shade closer to ice than what Kakashi remembers, and more familiar than they should be.<br/>
"I'm not Naruto." He says, and that- that can't be right, because that's his voice, those are the whisker scars on his cheeks-<br/>
As the younger boy shoves past him, he mutters something that sounds suspiciously like "not anymore", and Kakashi <i>freezes</i>.<br/>
He's finally placed it, what Nar-Gale sounds like – broken, broken in ways an eleven-year-old kid shouldn't be, broken like him (maybe broken worse than him) and broken like- like Tenzō.<br/>
Kakashi remembers where he's seen those eyes before.<br/>
Then Gale <i>growls</i>, low in his throat and inaudible to anyone but a shinobi with enhanced senses.<br/>
An Inuzuka down the street winces, and her ninken's tail lowers.<br/>
By then, Kakashi is too shocked to do anything but blink as the boy pushes through the crowd with the air of a <em>predator</em> (and whoever trained him to do that, he wonders). He pretends that he isn't shattering on the inside.<br/>
He's good at pretending.</p><p>--</p><p>He swings into the Sandaime's office exactly forty-one seconds later, and he's sure the older man sees something on his face because he sighs.<br/>
"So you've met him."<br/>
"He told me his name is <i>Gale</i>." Kakashi says, and his voice comes out in a snarl even though he doesn't want it to.<br/>
"Kaka-"<br/>
"His eyes are like Tenzō's." Kakashi cuts the Sandaime off for the first time in his life, and can't bring himself to care about it.<br/>
The Hokage freezes for a moment before speaking again.<br/>
"I'm assigning you Uchiha Sasuke." He says, and Kakashi doesn't even bother to prevent the scoff that leaves his lips.<br/>
"So we're not going to talk about him? About Gale?"<br/>
"Kakashi." The Hokage's voice is hard, and for once he sounds like the God of Shinobi. He may have had enough of the insubordination, but Kakashi hasn't.<br/>
"No. No, you don't get to change the subject. You get to tell me why the fuck Naruto is parading around calling himself Gale with eyes like a fucking wol-"<br/>
"Inu!" The Sandaime barks, and Kakashi finds himself straightening on instinct. His voice dies in his throat.<br/>
"Hokage-sama," he says, instead of a few choice curse words.</p><p>"I'm assigning you Uchiha Sasuke,"<br/>
A folder hits the table.<br/>
"File,"<br/>
Kakashi looks down at it, swallows, and looks back up at the Hokage.<br/>
"He's going to be here in two minutes," the wizened old man snaps, "look presentable."</p><p> </p><p>He does as told.</p><p>--</p><p>Sasuke arrives one minute and fourteen seconds later, and Kakashi is slouching again, with his nose buried in Icha Icha.<br/>
The Hokage looks faintly pleased to see one of his elite jōnin obeying him, and Kakashi hates him for it.<br/>
For all that the Sandaime wants them to be, the shinobi of Konoha aren't an emotionless army behind the Hokage.<br/>
They're just- not.<br/>
They have emotions, and trauma, and preferences, and the Hokage just doesn't get that.<br/>
Kakashi thinks he's been Hokage for too long, and he's not the only one who does.</p><p>The conversation flies past in a blink, and suddenly he's in Training Ground Three with a traumatised child next to him.<br/>
He looks over his book at Sasuke, curls his eye into an upside-down U and greets him with a smile.<br/>
"Yo! My name's Hatake Kakashi - what's yours?"</p><p>--</p><p>Uchiha Sasuke is just like him, in the end.<br/>
Kakashi finds himself teaching him chakra control, then C-rank Raiton and Katon jutsus, and then Raikiri.<br/>
The young boy worms his way into his life, gets closer than most people have ever done (maybe <i>Pack</i> his heart sings), and Kakashi finds himself pushing for more, more, <i>more</i> because he knows he can do better, be better, like Kakashi himself was-<br/>
Then he remembers who he is and how he turned out.</p><p>--</p><p>Kakashi is a laid-back teacher, in the end. He lets Sasuke get close but not too close (not Pack), and they never, ever touch (<i>not Pack</i>).<br/>
He's comfortable with it. This. The mentor-student relationship. He's fine with it.<br/>
Sasuke, it seems, is not.</p><p>--</p><p>Then they meet <i>Sakura</i>, and <i>Gale</i>, and everything gets better from there.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>hello! ive come out of writing block to throw this at you<br/>for reference, anbu names:<br/>kakashi = inu (hound, dog)<br/>genma = kumo (spider in this case, though it can also mean cloud)<br/>shisui = karasu (crow)<br/>itachi = itachi (weasel) lmao theres no way they didnt do that on purpose<br/>tenzō = neko (cat)<br/>yugao = hyō (panther, leopard) – yugao hasn't appeared but her mask also resembles a feline so i just want to make it clear that she's not going to be called neko haha</p><p>most of these are from absorption or google translate as i don't actually know japanese beyond a brief impulsive decision to try duolingo :)</p><p>also i get so much serotonin from kudos and comments so! if youd like to leave one!!! that'd be great!</p><p>even if you don't i love you and thank you for reading this fic! :D &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. in the eye of the hurricane, there is quiet; for just a moment, a yellow sky</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>yellow skies and blue rivers; gale and sakura's first interaction.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakura first sees the blonde boy training in Training Ground 16 on April 12th just as the sun is setting. He's young, her age, maybe younger but not by much – and strong, from the looks of it. He probably can't sense her; it's one of the perks of Mokuton. She shows up as natural energy to anyone but sages or particularly talented sensors.<br/>He's running through katas at a moderate pace, but Sakura can see how his tantō glows with chakra. Suddenly, the blade bursts into flames and he plunges it straight into the ground: the ground and the dry grass and flammable-<br/>She's nearly done with the hand seals for a Suiton jutsu when she realises he's brought his blade up, and a surge of Doton has risen with it. A pillar grows from the ground, and he leaps onto it, sending a wave of water from his left hand in a horizontal movement as he does so. <br/>That's three elemental conversions in barely four seconds without hand seals; impressive in itself.<br/>And then he pushes off the pillar, and he's falling- falling slowly, too slowly, she thinks - and she realises it's air, <i>Fuuton</i>, that's four- he flips, brings the tantō down with all his weight and it sparks with lightning that arcs into the trees.<br/>A crow caws in indignation and flies away, leaving a trail of slightly-singed feathers behind it.<br/>He's <i>strong</i>, Sakura thinks, and that's all she can think because she knows some <i>jōnin</i> can't do that, knows most shinobi in Konoha or any of the Elemental Nations have any chance of <i>ever</i> being able to do that. <br/>The blonde boy breathes out and straightens from his crouch, flipping his long hair back in an arc, and turns to look directly at Sakura.<br/>"Come on, then. That hair isn't exactly subtle." He calls, and Sakura blushes when she realises she might be hidden chakra-wise but not physically – a mistake she shouldn't be making.<br/>She takes two steps forward, then another and another until she's standing in front of the boy.<br/>"Uh. Hi. My name is Sakur-"<br/>"I know who you are." He cuts her off, eyes sharp and observing. <br/>"Sakura, former family name Haruno, eleven. Held in captivity for four years by prominent nukenin Orochimaru. Possesses Mokuton. Birthday on the 28th of April, returned to Konoha on the 21st of September – so your birthday in two weeks is going to be the first in Konoha after Orochimaru."<br/>"...So you have me at a disadvantage," Sakura says after a moment, and her voice comes out testy even to her ears.<br/>"I'm under no obligation to disclose my name to you."<br/>He looks up at her, turns his gaze fully onto hers and Sakura feels all her growing anger dissipate.<br/>Because for all that she's seen his eyes before (she has, he's looked <i>directly</i> at her and still he's never looked like- like-), she's never seen them like this.<br/> What she'd originally thought to be sky blue is more of a deep cerulean; dark blue whirlpools brimming with what she can only describe as- as Empty.<br/>"Oh-" she says, and it only registers after she's said it, "oh-uh-" and then her brain decides to shut down in a spectacular show of "need a training partner?"<br/>He looks at her strangely for a moment, head tilting to the side in a distinctly avian manner.<br/>"You'll do," He tells her, "but be warned. You're strong, but so am I."<br/>It's not like she already <i>knows</i> that or anything.<br/>"Yeah, yeah. I might just beat you." She snipes back and makes her way into the centre of the training ground.</p><p>--</p><p>An hour later, the training ground is reduced to broken trees and torn-up earth, and Sakura's getting pinned to the ground for the twenty-fourth time.<br/>"Oh, for Kami's sake," she growls, "get off! I'm going to beat you-"<br/>She slams everything she has into <i>Suiton</i> and <i>Mokuton</i> and finds herself coming up lacking, finds herself pushing the limits of her reserves even as she sits and then stands.<br/>The blonde boy just leaps back, eyes already sharp, watching roots carve through the earth and water through the air.<br/>Then he flicks through hand seals, almost too fast to see, and blows out <i>another</i> Sage-damned Fuuton jutsu (It's not even high-ranked, it's just tiger-ox-dog-rabbit-snake-Great Breakthrough, she realises), and the roots are gone and the water is blowing back in her face.<br/>He's used jutsus of other elements, of <i>all</i> the other elements, but it's easy to see that Fuuton is his strongest.<br/>The wind hits a second later, sharp and cutting, and she can feel a slash of blood across her cheekbone. She doesn't understand it – he can't be strong, can't be this strong, she's only beaten him once and that was through sheer luck (or pity, maybe).<br/>She falls back onto her elbows and doesn't make a move to get up. In an instant, his tantō is drawn and pointed at her neck.<br/>"Stay down," he mutters, "you're severely chakra exhausted. Hit the hospital after this."<br/>Then he sheathes his blade and begins to walk away; he doesn't <i>shunshin</i>, and Sakura can't tell if it's because he doesn't want to or if he's just as drained as she is (probably not, her mind whispers, not with how strong that last jutsu was).<br/>"Hey!" She calls, and is she <i>insane</i>, what is she doing- he stops and turns his head to the side to look at her.<br/>"Same time next week?"<br/>"Gale." He responds, then turns and keeps walking.<br/>Sakura lets herself lie down completely and starts to laugh, in a way she hasn't since Karin, because he's strong and he's quick and he's <i>Gale</i>, and he's going to make her strong too.</p><p>--</p><p>Gale is a physical teacher. He doesn't tell her what's wrong – he hits her ruthlessly in the weak spots until she corrects it. And it's working. She's getting better; not only is her technique better, but she's also more powerful and her reactions are faster.<br/>Gale is a physical teacher, so it's a surprise when he initiates conversation two weeks into their strange arrangement. <br/>"I'm not going to be here next week." <br/>"Why-?" Sakura asks, panting from their latest bout.<br/>"I've been assigned a solo B-rank in Iwa." And she freezes because she knows Gale is jōnin-level if not higher, she should have realised he has missions to run–<br/>"How've you made time for me? You're a jōni-"<br/>"Chūnin." He says, and that can't be right, because he's stronger than her, they can't be the same rank.<br/>After a pause, Sakura says, "You deserve jōnin."<br/>He turns to gaze at her blankly, and replies, "Rank doesn't matter. I know I'm strong. You should be tokubetsu jōnin at least. Even if your basics aren't as strong as they can be, your Mokuton and Suiton more than make up for it."<br/>And then Sakura understands.<br/>"You're not from the Academy." She says, and he snorts.<br/>"No, I'm not."<br/>Instead of continuing the conversation, she decides to slip into an opening stance – for all that he's amused now, she knows this isn't something Gale is comfortable talking about.<br/>She wins that round and thinks that it's his way of saying thank you.</p><p>--</p><p>He doesn't come the next week, and Sakura's expecting that, so she doesn't think there's anything wrong.<br/>Except he doesn't come the week after that either, and then she begins to worry because that makes it fourteen days when she hasn't seen him.<br/>It's the tenth of May, and on the tenth of May Gale stumbles into their clearing with his forearms wrapped and a bloody leg.</p><p>--</p><p>Sakura is by his side in an instant, even though she knows he's not in actual danger. His thigh is bandaged and nothing is bleeding through the wraps on his arms.<br/>"Hey, what happened-" she says, and he thrusts something into her arms.<br/>She looks down at it and sees it's a weapons pouch, filled with shuriken, kunai and ninja wire. There's also a wrapped bundle of <i>something</i>, but she can worry about that later. <br/>"Snuck out of the hospital," Gale smiles, and this one's real, this one's satisfied even as his knee gives way and he flops backwards onto the ground. "Happy birthday."<br/>He sits up and continues, "I got hit by a kekkai genkai that restricts other kekkai genkai; usually I heal, but this time I didn't. I suppose it's close enough to a bloodline limit to be slowed, at least."<br/>"Advanced healing?" Sakura asks interestedly, looking at him curiously.<br/>He hums, and his fingers tap out a rhythm on the grass. "The bundle," he says, in lieu of an answer.<br/>She opens it, taking care not to rip the pink fabric it's wrapped in, and inside is armour – not full-body metal armour, but lightweight mesh with a pair of sturdy arm guards crossed neatly on top.<br/>"I-this must have cost a fortune-Gale-"<br/>"I get too much money from missions," he says, "I only need so much."<br/>"Oh-" and she can feel tears pricking at the corners of her eyes now, threatening to embarrass her in front of one of the strongest shinobi she knows, "Oh-thank you-thank you."<br/>She launches herself at him, and for the first time, they touch without any aggressive intent.<br/>There is no judgement or expectation in the way the other's hands hesitantly reach up to wrap around her back.<br/>Gale reminds her of Karin, in a way.<br/>She misses Karin.</p><p>--</p><p>For whatever reason, the training grounds in Konoha aren't arranged by number.<br/>Sakura discovers this when, during one of her sessions with Gale, the training ground next to them explodes into fire and lightning and ash.<br/>Gale reacts immediately and leaps into the trees, towards the threat. Sakura simply follows.<br/>"Which training ground is this?" She breathes, and though he's ahead and they're downwind Gale still manages to hear her.<br/>He looks back at her and then forms his left hand into a few seals; from her limited education in them with Orochimaru, it's general shinobi-sign for 'training ground three'. <br/>Sakura pushes herself into a <i>shunshin</i> and lands lightly on a branch observing the chaos, Gale appearing soundlessly next to her before she can even blink.<br/>"Two signals," he says, cold and calculated, "adult male, Raiton nature, Konoha shinobi. Adolescent male, Raiton but also- smells like smoke."<br/>Gale pauses, relaxes slightly, then adds: "Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke."<br/>At this Sakura turns at looks at him – she's been in the village for barely half a year and even she knows who Uchiha Sasuke is.<br/>"The Last Uchiha?" She asks, and the answer is obvious.<br/>There's only one Uchiha in Konoha, after all.<br/>"Mm."</p><p>The smoke is clearing now, and she can just make out a mop of silver hair over the top of it all.<br/>"Maybe we should go say hello." She says before she can really think about it, and Gale sighs.<br/>"I've been meaning to meet Hatake Kakashi for a while," he says, "this is a good opportunity."<br/>They leap down from the tree, land in front of the pair (jōnin-sensei and genin, Sakura realises belatedly), and Gale extends a hand to the taller of the two.<br/>"Gale," he says, and then, "we met in the marketplace, but we didn't get to talk."<br/>Hatake Kakashi feels like static and grief (radiates it, even with only a single eye visible), and he looks wary as he brings his own hand forward to clasp Gale's in a civilian-perpetuated sign of greeting. <br/>"I remember," he says. "Why are you here?"<br/>Sakura feels a grin stretch wide across her face, a step to the left from manic as she finally lets tightly-contained anger flood free. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the black-haired boy (Uchiha Sasuke, her mind supplies) take a startled step back.<br/>"Oh, I don't know," she practically snarls, "why don't you tell us what you were doing blowing up a <i>public training ground?</i>"<br/>Hatake's eye widens for a moment before he smiles guilelessly, and reaches up to rub the back of his neck.<br/>"Maa, you heard that?"</p><p><i>Oh</i>, he's so dead.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>phew now that their backstories are all done i actually have to write interaction and if you cant tell im struggling so hard lmao<br/>but! :D i got something out within the week! god im going to look back at this when ive slept more than eight hours in the past two days and find so amny errors</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. when you become untouchable, you're unable to touch</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>pretty much the previous chapter, but from sasuke's pov. i had trouble with writing inspiration so.. just have this ig :d</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At first, Sasuke doesn't understand why Kakashi is taking him to a <i>training field</i> to learn sealing. It's just ink and paper, something you could do perfectly safely indoors. </p><p>"I don't know much sealing, but I can teach you the basics," Kakashi offers, even as he gently lays a stack of high-grade sealing paper, an inkstone, an inkstick and a brush on the grass.</p><p>"First, ink. It's the basis of sealing. High-level sealing masters use ink infused with chakra or even blood, but we'll be using the old-fashioned kind today."</p><p>Kakashi-sensei teaches him how to turn inksticks into ink, how to grind the stick on the stone and let the resulting liquid run pitch-black down to the well.<br/>
It takes Sasuke a good hour to learn how to mix ink to a high enough standard for sealing.<br/>
Then Kakashi pulls out an explosive tag; Sasuke recognises it as the really destructive ones that jōnin use. He takes out one of his own for comparison, and his sensei nods in approval.</p><p>"So what's the difference between the two?" Kakashi asks as he holds both tags up in front of Sasuke.<br/>
With them put together like this, without the heat of battle clouding the details, without having to recognise them as explosive tags and nothing more- the difference is stark.<br/>
The <i>baku</i> character in the middle is the same: it's the purpose, the definition of the seal.<br/>
But with a closer look, looking on the outer edges of the seals, he can see that Kakashi's tag has something a little extra.<br/>
It's almost unnoticeable: a swirl on the top right, mirrored on the bottom left.<br/>
"What's that?" Sasuke asks, pointing at the corners, "and why does it make your tag stronger?"<br/>
Kakashi smiles in the way he does when he's about to <i>teach</i>. Sasuke likes it when he smiles like that because it's when he learns the most.<br/>
"It's the most basic form of amplification in sealing," Kakashi says, "and it's used for seals with a singular purpose. For example, these have the kanji for 'explosion' on them, and that's the only purpose it's meant to serve. More complicated sealing has multiple kanji, or sometimes-" At this, his eyes go distant for a second, and Kakashi visibly shakes himself before he continues. "Sometimes, they have none at all."<br/>
"But why does it amplify it? Like-what does that structure specifically do?" Sasuke blurts because sealing sounds interesting in a way shinobi things usually aren't.<br/>
"Aa. There's not much logic to fūinjutsu, unfortunately. It comes naturally to sealing masters, and plebeians like me simply copy them. The man who makes general shinobi tags doesn't know what they do either. What I do know is that it's mirrored to prevent the tag from being unstable; if we only drew that in one corner, it'd be liable to unpredictable explosions. The intricacies of sealing are usually the hardest parts because the actual theory lies in the core."<br/>
Kakashi's explaining it in a bit of a roundabout way, but Sasuke <i>gets</i> it, gets it in a way that he hasn't with anything else.</p><p>"So you can form a skeleton, but not the skin." Sasuke finds himself saying, and it wasn't the analogy he was looking for but it works nonetheless.<br/>
"...yes. Essentially. I can draw Lines of Convergence and the central absorption seal, enough that they work, but I can't make them stronger as a real fuīnjutsu master can."</p><p>He doesn't know what Lines of Convergence are, or an absorption seal, but it sounds powerful and interesting.<br/>
"Alright. Teach me, sensei."</p><p>Kakashi looks at him strangely with his single birdlike eye for a moment, before smiling and laying out two sheets of sealing paper.<br/>
"We're going to be drawing seals. I want you to watch me first because fūinjutsu is dangerous no matter how skilled you are. Okay?"</p><p>Sasuke nods his assent and watches his teacher dip a brush in the shimmering black ink and then laying it onto the paper. Under his gaze, he sees the brush write <i>aji</i> in the centre, and then small amplification swirls, identical to those on the explosion tags.<br/>
Kakashi-sensei adds a few more strokes that look more like memorisation than anything else and presents the now-drying tag to Sasuke.</p><p>"This seal enhances taste; it's one of the less useful and less dangerous seals in existence. Copy it."<br/>
Sasuke does.<br/>
The first time he tries, he gets it right, and Kakashi nods in approval.<br/>
"Uchiha...have always been good at visual memorisation, even without the Sharingan." His sensei offers, though he's obviously uncomfortable with talking about the massacre or the Uchiha at all.</p><p>Over the next hour, Sasuke copies a seal another nine times, and all of them come out perfectly. Like he expected.</p><p>On the tenth attempt, he shifts his weight and slips on the damp ground. Reaching automatically for his chakra, he manages to negate most of the impact; then he realises he's made a mistake on the seal, a bold line scored horizontally across. </p><p>And he put chakra in it.</p><p>He doesn't register Kakashi's hand on his shirt until he's yanked backwards in a <i>shunshin</i> – and he knows this is serious, Kakashi doesn't touch him, doesn't <i>ever</i> touch him. The older man has already formed the tiger seal and weaves through a few more before slamming his hands on the ground. An earthen wall rises between them and the seal, and just as it crests over the top of his vision, he sees it glow red-hot. </p><p>Then there's a muffled 'boom', and Sasuke braces instinctively.<br/>
He opens his eyes as the wall is coming down, and is baffled with how the training ground has just been given an entirely new landscape.<br/>
"What the fuck," he breathes, "it wasn't an explosion seal?"<br/>
"Yeah, about that," Kakashi smiles, releasing the scruff of his shirt and jerking his hand back like he's been burned, "seals are destructive even if they're not right. Especially if they're not right. That would have been classified as a C-rank seal."</p><p>Sasuke looks at Kakashi in disbelief.<br/>
What does an A-rank seal gone wrong look like, then?<br/>
"Oh, I can show you!" Kakashi sounds all too happy and childish, and Sasuke realises he's asked it out loud.<br/>
Kakashi reaches for another paper and ink, sketching a seal on it before scratching a line through the whole thing.<br/>
Sasuke barely has time to recognise the kanji for lightning (oh Kami, it's <i>lightning</i>) before his sensei pulses chakra through the seal and leaps back. Sasuke follows his example and takes shelter behind the Doton wall that his sensei erects, a split second before the seal goes off with a <i>bang</i>.</p><p>His ears are still ringing when Kakashi steps into his vision, and he realises it's over.<br/>
He looks out over the field, and it's just- it's just Gone.<br/>
Lightning still sparks occasionally, jumping from blade to blade of grass, and the whole area is covered in thick smoke.<br/>
"What." He growls and turns to look up at his sensei. "You didn't think to get us to safety <i>before</i> you activated the seal?"<br/>
Kakashi opens his mouth to answer before his gaze turns hard, and he looks to one of the trees surrounding the training ground.<br/>
Sasuke looks too, and he can just about make out two shinobi standing on one of the branches.<br/>
Neither of them are making an effort to conceal themselves, and the blonde and pink hair isn't exactly inconspicuous.<br/>
They leap down onto the training ground, and up-close Sasuke can see that they're his age.<br/>
The blonde boy reaches his hand out for a handshake, and introduces, "Gale. We met in the marketplace, but we didn't get to talk."<br/>
His sensei is unnaturally hesitant as he matches the younger boy (why can he touch him, and not Sasuke?), and his next words weigh heavy with some kind of caution.<br/>
"I remember. Why are you here?"<br/>
Said like that, it sounds like an accusation – and in response, the pink girl begins radiating something close to killing intent.<br/>
Sasuke feels his eyes go wide and takes a step back, suddenly more aware of how she shifts her stance. He flicks his eyes to Gale and sees the way his posture is completely relaxed.<br/>
Gale looks like Kakashi-sensei, and Kakashi-sensei is dangerous.</p><p>"Oh, I don't know," the pink-haired girl growls, "why don't you tell us what you were doing blowing up a <i>public training ground</i>?"</p><p>Kakashi-sensei's hand finds the back of his neck without missing a beat, and he eye-smiles like an idiot.<br/>
"Maa, you heard that?"</p><p>Sasuke sees the exact moment she goes murderous, and he's a safe distance away when she jumps Kakashi. The man steps backwards, feigning surprise, and Gale catches her by the back of her shirt as she attempts to lunge a second time.<br/>
"Sakura." The blonde boy says, but she isn't listening.<br/>
She forms a hand seal and roots weave out of the ground (is that <i>Mokuton</i>?), making their way towards Kakashi who doesn't seem alarmed.<br/>
Gale sighs, and without even looking in their direction wind slices the roots in half.<br/>
"Sakura," he says again, "behave."<br/>
She deflates, anger flowing out of her (or back into her, tightly contained, Sasuke thinks).<br/>
"Mokuton no Sakura," Kakashi-sensei says, voice serious.<br/>
She looks up and smiles, something primal in her stare. "Sharingan no Kakashi."<br/>
Sometimes, Sasuke forgets that Kakashi is a world-renowned shinobi with a fucking Sharingan.<br/>
When his sensei had first told him about having the famed copy dōjutsu, Sasuke hadn't felt angry. Even now he doesn't know the full story, but Kakashi was radiating grief, was radiating regret and self-loathing, and that's really explanation enough.<br/>
"The Last Uchiha."<br/>
Sasuke looks up at the cursed name, and he sees the blonde boy staring at him.<br/>
"Uchiha Sasuke, if you prefer." Gale offers, and his face attempts to do a smile. It's a bit blank, really.<br/>
"Yeah. That'd be good." He responds, "Sorry, why are you talking to me?"<br/>
Gale looks surprised for a moment and Kakashi barks out a laugh.<br/>
"My name is Hatake Kakashi, and this is my genin student Uchiha Sasuke, though you already knew that."<br/>
Gale looks up and returns, "Gale, and this is Sakura. Mokuton no Sakura."<br/>
Sasuke notes the lack of family names for both of them, and there's got to be some kind of troubling backstory there.<br/>
"Do you want to join us?" Kakashi says, and Sasuke has to have given himself whiplash because his head has never moved this fast before.<br/>
He's looking at his sensei now, and dimly registers disbelief.<br/>
What.<br/>
Kakashi looks at him, smiles, and tilts his head in a way that means 'trust me.' And for the life of him, Sasuke <i>does</i>.<br/>
"Yeah," Sasuke adds, "you look strong and you're around my age."<br/>
Sakura snorts and turns to Gale, who smiles blandly and says, "That would be sufficient. It's not every day we get to train with Hatake Kakashi, after all."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>chapter title from my ordinary life by the living tombstone!<br/>next chapter is going to be a bit of sparring if i can figure out how to write fight scenes ehe</p><p>--</p><p>also i published a naruto x avengers one-shot and it's pretty short so if yall could read it and leave kudos that would be great! ofc you don't have to if you don't want to or aren't interested in the mcu fandom ahaha<br/>it's just a weird lil Writing Worm thaht wouldn't leave me alone :(</p><p>EDIT: THANK YOU FOR OVER 1K HITS AND 70+ KUDOS :O serotonin is something ive missed so dearly...<br/>also if you have any questions or requests or just comments i'd love to hear them and ill reply :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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